The treasure of
knowledge gathered by our ancestors, which is the collective heritage of
mankind, is vast. It represents the cumulative effort of generations over
centuries. No human can hope to acquire more than a small fragment of this
treasure. No human can subject more than a very small percentage of this
heritage to critical examination. This means that a vast proportion of what I
know and what you know is received knowledge which we have accepted without
questioning. The knowledge that we have is strongly conditioned by the streams
of history in which we live, but we are largely unaware of this. This creates a
dilemma: we have no choice but to trust the cumulative body of received
knowledge, yet there is always the possibility of systematic and widespread
errors in this body of knowledge. If nearly everybody around us believes that
the earth is flat, or that white races are superior to others, it is very hard
for us to avoid such errors. There are two strategies which are effective in
liberating us from the strands of the history that bind us. One is the study of
the history of thought: studying how an idea emerged and how it was fashioned
by the forces of history and vice-versa leads to substantial clarity and
insight.A second strategy is to study
the worldviews of those who have lived in a different stream of history and
therefore come to a different way of understanding the world. Just as a mirror
allows us to see our own face, so an alternative coherent worldview illuminates
and clarifies our own worldview. ‘Seeing ourselves as others see us’ permits
insights which are not possible from purely internal dialogues and discussions.

Divergent historical
events have led to great differences between ways of viewing the world in
European thought and in the Islamic world. These differences lead to
misunderstandings and hostility, which are currently the source of conflicts
and misery for large numbers of human beings in the Islamic world and outside
of it. One major goal of this survey is to present Islamic views on how to
arrange economic affairs in a society to a Western audience. I will focus on
the contrasts between Islamic and Western views and show that there are
coherent alternatives to prevalent and dominant Western views on the subject.
This is subordinate to the larger goal of creating better understanding and
sympathy across the cultural divide, in the hope that this will improve the
conditions of human beings living on this planet. I also hope that
understanding Islamic views, which closely match pre-modern Western views, will
provide deeper insights into some essential but largely forgotten aspects of
the Western heritage, as well as a better understanding of the roots of the
numerous attempts to construct alternatives to modernity currently under way in
the West.

Some methods and
style of discourse utilized below are adapted to these goals, which are
different from those of a typical academic paper. Excessive attention to detail
would distract from the goal of providing a panoramic description of a coherent
and integrated alternative worldview. From among a complex and diverse set of
Islamic views, I have often picked one or two for the sake of maintaining
consistency across a broad spectrum of issues to be discussed. I have similarly
chosen certain ‘Enlightenment’ perspectives to represent Western views, as
these views offer the maximum contrast with the Islamic views. This approach is
subject to the well-known weaknesses of the technique of ‘binary opposition’,
but it serves my purpose here of sketching a coherent Islamic view on economic
affairs with a minimum of brush strokes. I apologise in advance to both Eastern
and Western readers with heterodox views who feel misrepresented by the sketchy
characterizations offered of both poles of a binary opposition. Points of view
offered as ‘Islamic’ below are supported by Islamic source texts and held by
substantial numbers of Muslims, but are not necessarily majority or dominant
views. A similar warning should be kept in mind for views labelled ‘Western’,
by which I usually mean views emerging out of the Enlightenment project of
rejecting religion and tradition, and relying on observations and logic as the
sole source of trustworthy knowledge.

A peculiar aspect
of knowledge is that one who does not have it does not know what he or she does
not have. A non-mathematician will not be thrilled by the elegance of the Law
of the Iterated Logarithms, will not be able to differentiate between trivial
and deep results, appreciate subtleties, or evaluate the relative skill of
experts and separate them from charlatans. Even more, that person will not be
able to assess the difference that possession of such knowledge will make to
his or her own life.Views like those of
Macaulay’s that
“a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native
literature of India
and Arabia”, cannot easily be refuted. The
effort required to acquire alien types of knowledge will not be made by those
who do not appreciate the value of this type of knowledge. Without investment
of substantial time and effort, appreciation of a complex and sophisticated
alien structure of knowledge cannot be acquired. Once acquired, it cannot be
easily conveyed to others, especially to those disdainful about the value of
such knowledge. The Arabic word for `student’ translates to ‘seeker of
knowledge’ and an attitude of humility, as well as the desire or passion to
acquire knowledge and to value it above all things, are essential
characteristics for a student in the Islamic tradition.